


Ally

by redtrouble



Category: Demonheart (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:41:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22731973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redtrouble/pseuds/redtrouble
Summary: In the wake of Thayn's defeat, Bright and Raze meet again.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20





	Ally

**Author's Note:**

> This piece follows my story called "Mother" and the "Apocalypse" alternate ending.

The crickets chirped lazily and a light breeze gently rustled the trees. The fire crackled and popped, burned down to half its strength. Brash and Ari were sound asleep, as Bright should have been, but she was wide awake. Normally they would not have risked sleep without a watch, but they were all so tired from their trip to Inferno, their fight with Thayn, and the struggle to get out that it was all they could do not to collapse on the spot.

Bright should have. She was exhausted down to her bones. She was hovering on the border of delirium, desperate for rest… But she couldn’t close her eyes and not see Raze gazing at her with those big, golden eyes telling her that he would feed her heart to the mother of the apocalypse. It hurt so much, she couldn’t breathe.

Bright felt fresh tears well up in her eyes, fingers clawing at the ache in her chest. If she broke through skin and bone, could she dig out this pain? It was emotional. It wasn’t real. But it hurt like a physical blade with an edge so keen, she would bleed out before she knew she was cut. Why wasn’t she dead yet? She had lost so much blood to this invisible wound…

A flicker in her peripherals dragged her back into the present in a panic. Beyond the flames of the campfire, she saw a small flicker of orange moving into the tree line.

 _Mr. Edgardo…?_ She pushed herself up. The orange shape disappeared into the wood. Was she seeing things? Her vision was blurry from tears and lack of sleep, but she could have sworn she saw a cat. She got to her feet and drifted toward the darkness, away from the warmth and light of the camp. It was a foolish thing to do, but she no longer felt afraid. It was the grief, she knew that. Grief siphoned away at every other sensible emotion, every natural instinct of self-preservation. It would pass…but perhaps not before she walked into the lion’s den.

Bright slipped through the trees like a ghost, following the glimpse of orange fur always just beyond her grasp until she came to a small lake. She gasped at the stark moon reflecting on the still water, like a portal into another world. The cat was nowhere to be seen. Bright stared at the water as if in a trance, listened to the crickets and locusts, felt the breeze sliding along her skin. It was quiet. Peaceful. As though somewhere out there, a demonchild was not preparing the absolute destruction of her world…

Her lower lip quivered. Why did she care what happened to this world anyway? It was a horrible place. Her idyllic memories of Feline had been shattered with Orchid’s death and hundreds of people chanting in the streets for her head. The war camp had told her enough of what she could expect in Scarcewall—mean and cold and unfair. Ravage was a destitute city of depravity and ruin. And the people? They weren’t any better. Two-faced and liars, immoral and cruel, power-hungry and paranoid, selfish. They could all burn in the Apocalypse!

She didn’t care about this world… Not really. Of course, she didn’t want to see it destroyed, but she had no noble intentions to sacrifice her life trying to save it. No, she had only wanted to save _him_ …

A branch snapped and she went rigid, her skin prickling in warning. Someone moved behind her, deliberately announcing their presence. She did not move an inch.

“I told you the boy was trouble,” a deep voice said, smooth as velvet, from behind her. “That he wept for the apocalypse.”

Her eyes shuttered as she was slammed with memories and feelings no older than a handful of weeks, yet felt as if from a lifetime ago. She never thought he would deign to speak with her again… That he was here, even if he turned out to be her assassin, caused tears to line her eyes.

“I know,” she said quietly.

“You released him anyway.”

She nodded, and her voice cracked when she agreed, “I did.”

“You locked me in my oldest torment and left me to suffer.”

“Yes,” she whispered, nodding again. She turned to face him. “I did that.”

The demonspawn’s nose wrinkled in a snarl, his vivid red skin like rust in the moonlight and his blue eyes vibrantly glowing. Suddenly he was right on top of her, his nose barely a breadth from hers.

“I could kill you right now,” he growled softly.

Bright met his stare head on. “Perhaps you should,” she murmured. His eyes narrowed, assessing her.

“Feeling sorry for yourself, are you?” he sneered.

Was she? Maybe. And on any other day, she might have given a damn. But today, she felt beyond defeated. She had been wrong, so very wrong. At every turn. About Raze—both of them—about herself. She wasn’t cut out to be a demonheart, and she didn’t have the stomach to become strong. The future was out of her control. Was she feeling sorry for herself? Probably. But at that moment, she wasn’t feeling much of anything but the numbness of grief. So she just stared at him, waiting for his judgment.

He tsked. “Oh, Bright,” he sighed in that demeaning way of his and backed away. “I expected more from you.”

“No, you didn’t,” she said, and he froze. “From the beginning, the only thing you ever expected from me was disappointment.”

He slowly turned his head to look at her over his shoulder. “And that’s exactly what I got.”

“Of course, it was. I can’t compete with your expectations. You wanted me to be something that doesn’t exist and you knew it, which is why you knew I had to disappointment you. So, I did. Of course, I did.”

He turned fully toward her and stared at her. He looked ready to accuse her of betrayal, but knew it would be unfair. He had turned on her first. They were locked in a stalemate, and she didn’t know what he wanted from her or why he hadn’t killed her yet.

“I don’t know how I should call you,” she said, breaking the silence. “You hate your name. I know that. What should I call you?” When he didn’t answer, she kept talking. “It was hard, at first, not to think of you as Raze every time I called for him. But…you weren’t Raze. And eventually, it became his name, too.”

“Be that as it may,” he began tightly, “I chose his name for myself, and now it is mine. No matter that he’s free.”

Bright nodded once. “All right…”

He took a step toward her. “When you betrayed me, you kissed me,” he said. “Why?”

Bright blinked at him, carefully considering how to answer.

“I may not be able to hear your thoughts, but your face tells me enough,” he growled. “Do not lie to me.”

She let out an uneasy breath. The truth made her guilt worsen. “Because I knew,” she began slowly, “it was what you wanted.”

He might have flinched. It was difficult to tell with only the moon for light. “How presumptuous,” he ground out. “You think very highly of yourself.”

“Not me.”

“Oh?” He prowled up to her again, so close that she could see the muscle feathering in his jaw. “So, what exactly did you think I wanted?”

“Affection.”

She felt like the worst sort of person admitting it, that she knew he only wanted to be loved and had used it against him—never mind that he gave her no choice, that it was her life or his, Raze’s life or his. It was that flicker of pain in his eyes when she had stabbed him—the same pain she saw now—that realization that he had opened his armor just a crack and she had gutted him for it.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

He was so tense, he looked carved from stone. “Do not expect your tears to move me.”

She blinked rapidly and felt the drops she hadn’t known were there slide down her face. “I don’t.”

“Do not expect me to forgive you. I won’t.”

“I know.” She swiped at her cheeks. He scoffed and turned away, began pacing in front of the lake. “Why are you here, Raze? What do you want?”

“To prevent this ridiculous notion of an apocalypse.”

“What do you want from _me_?”

He looked at her as he walked past her. “You know what I want.”

For a moment, she truly didn’t. She was at a loss. And then the answer hit her. He wanted her to betray Raze, to betray that little boy she had come to love in spite of how wrong he had turned out. She felt the blood draining out of her face.

Raz—Dorio—whoever the hell he was—he laughed at her.

“Give me the necklace,” he said. “That’s all you have to do.”

“I can’t,” she rasped. “You know I can’t remove it.”

He faced her. “Perhaps I can.”

Her hand flew to her neck protectively. “No…” The idea of losing that connection—it terrified her. But what she said was, “He’ll know. There must be another way.”

“No matter the way, he will always know. He can see your dreams.”

Bright frowned. “Not when they’re occupied…”

“What?”

“When Thayn invaded my dreams, he,” she shook her head, remembering the boy’s words, “couldn’t see them.”

“Well, Thayn is gone,” Raze reminded her.

“You’re not.” The words left her mouth before she had time to consider them. Raze went very still.

“…Are you saying you want me to visit your dreams?” He gave her a sly smile. “I don’t think your big oaf would appreciate that.”

Bright couldn’t look at him. She was too embarrassed. To have Dori—Raze back in her head should have appalled her, but she felt some measure of relief at the idea. Anything to not see that small boy’s wounded expression as he called to his mother and wondered why she wouldn’t answer him, night after night. And yet it felt wrong to ask that of him, to even consider growing closer to him. He was a demonspawn, the same as Raze.

 _Not the same…_ she thought. They were two opposite sides of the same coin. A Raze who had been loved dearly by his mother yet was void of empathy and a Raze who had been despised by his yet felt drawn to emotion he didn’t understand. Both tortured children, one had been abandoned, the other had been rescued. Was it truly hopeless? Could she do nothing to help them? Or could there only ever be one Raze?

“Oh, I see,” he murmured, and she was so surprised to find him upon her that she had to take a step back. “You’re still suffering under the delusion you can save him.”

The words slapped her.

“Tell me,” he purred. “Deep down, in your little, black demonheart…do you really think you can?” He closed the distance between them “You have done all you know how to do, but he is a demonspawn. You showered him with love, and he has promised to make you powerful, to be the gift to the mother of the Apocalypse—the highest display of Infernal love.” He made a very purposeful shrug. “Not what you were hoping for, but you always were in over your head.”

This time she felt the tears coming. They poured out of her even as she tried to hold them in. Her breath came in short gasps, shoulders shaking. She covered her eyes with her fingers and cried. Raze did not back away. He stood there as though he had issued a challenge and her sobs concluded his victory. So when she bowed over in grief, she found her forehead against his chest, and she didn’t care if he held her or hurt her, stood there or pushed her away.

A hand touched her back and the floodgates opened. She pressed her face into his skin and wailed. Why? Why why why? Why had it turned out this way? She didn’t understand anything. What made a woman offer herself to a demon for the sake of a child who would destroy her body leaving her womb? What made a demonchild so different than a human one? Why couldn’t she save him? Was it just biology or had it been Thayn poisoning his mind while he was suffering?

“Damn you,” she hiccupped. It was his fault. It was all his fault. If he had just left Orchid alone… If she had been able to raise him from the beginning… “Damn you!” And even as she cursed him, she leaned on him, felt his hand tightened against her back.

“Give me the necklace, Bright,” he said softly.

“No!” she said against his chest in a rare display of blatant defiance.

Raze ran his palms up her arms and gently moved her away from him far enough to take hold of her chin and tilt it up. “Give me the necklace,” he said again. She shook her head, face wrinkled in a frown. “Why not?”

“I’ll lose him. And I’ll lose you, too.”

“What makes you think you haven’t already?”

“You’re here,” she said then touched the necklace at her throat, “And he’s here.”

He scoffed, but there was no malice in it. “And what do you want with a couple of demonspawn?”

“I don’t know!” she admitted. “But you’re both already in here…” She tapped her chest over her heart.

For a moment, he looked truly pained. “You don’t have it in you to love us, Bright.” He released her chin. “You’re too weak for that road.”

Bright was so tired of being found wanting, her value chipped away at. Of being told what she had to do to survive, being mocked because she wouldn’t give in, being called weak—but how truly weak would she be to quietly go against her morals and do as she was told? She wouldn’t hunt someone down and eat their heart just to be strong. She would not be cruel and trust no one to avoid being betrayed. And she would not sacrifice anyone else just to survive.

It wasn’t much to offer, but it was her strength, for whatever that was worth. And even if this path broke her apart, it was her choice. She would not regret choosing Raze or loving him. Either one.

“That may be,” she whispered, remembering her promise to her son, “but I’ll do it with all my might.”

Raze sighed dramatically, a gesture that seemed to move his entire body until his nose was just a sliver from hers. “You are a fool, Bright,” he said, but there was almost something endearing in the way he said it. “Very well.” His chin tilted toward hers, his lips brushing against the skin beside her mouth. “I will see you in your dreams,” he murmured, and then he took a step back into a portal of shadow and was gone.

Bright stared at the place where he had been, mulling over his final words to her and their flirtatious connotation. And then she rolled her eyes. It seemed all the important men in her life were inclined to misbehave. But as she picked her way back toward the camp, there was a small smile on her lips. She yawned as she snuggled back into Brash’s arms, and this time she fell right to sleep.


End file.
